This is the fourth and final article in a series on how hospitality managers can make more money, with this one geared specifically to food and beverage managers. This article discusses maximizing the profit from existing guests (for example, by upselling appetizers, desserts, and beverages) and expanding beyond the restaurant premises (catering and food delivery, as well as partnerships with businesses and special-event organizations). To maximize revenue, restaurant managers must track menu-items' contribution margins and identify the sales mix. Managers also must control seating among different-size parties during peak periods, to ensure fastest table turns and maximum revenue per party. Moving diners away from their table when they are finished eating is also important. Seating control requires a menu-mix analysis combined with a turnover-time analysis of different party sizes. The key to controlling the seating is understanding demand patterns, including how many parties of various sizes want to eat during each hour and how many were refused or walked away. The only way to accurately ascertain demand patterns-total diners and diners per table-is to keep track of all reservation requests.

The basic concept of yield management is determining which business will bring in the most revenue on a given date. This requires keeping records of past business as an indication of future business-for example, the likelihood of selling out on a given date, guests' lengths of stay, and the number of rooms a given client plans to book. Shifting some demand from busy dates to slack times can increase revenue, as can eliminating discount categories for sellout dates. Hoteliers can also manipulate groups' minimumstay requirements rather than dicker on room rate alone to maximize revenue. Selling fewer rooms to a group at a great discount at a slack time, for instance, might net greater revenue than selling more rooms at a small discount at a busy time-if the group displaces potential rack-rate business.

Revenue enhancement-comprising strategies for increasing the amount of money a business makes-requires that a business solve a guest's problems in such a way that the guest pays to have those needs satisfied and is pleased at the outcome. Involving creative approaches to serving guests, revenue enhancement implies a management commitment to seek guests who are willing and able to pay for solutions to their problems. Revenue enhancement can be as simple as letting guests know what services are available or asking them about their needs so that one can match up desired services to those offered by a hotel or restaurant, or it can be as complicated as applying computer-based yield-management algorithms. In addition to encouraging guests to spend their money, managers committed to revenue enhancement must set up incentives that allow their employees to share in the additional profits brought about by the extra services that the employees offer. Developing new services, repackaging existing services, and shifting peak demand to off-peak times are all tactics that can enhance revenue. This is the first in a series discussing specifically how hotels and restaurants can apply revenue-enhancing strategies.

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Customers need help identifying their “problems” and finding solutions. If managers can satisfy patrons' needs (i.e., problems) creatively, managers can greatly increase an operation's profits. The first step is to put together a team of creative employees who will develop ideas for making more money. The team will brainstorm ideas and develop a plan for implementing them. For example, 10 of this paper's 20 suggested money-making opportunities are these: examine your discounts, train your front-desk clerks to sell, book a room at checkout, recommend your own restaurants, centralize your dining reservations, maximize profit from the minibar, offer commissions, get in on the college-sports market, provide incentives, and make use of guest histories. Some of the suggestions may not work for every hotel, but they should inspire the creative team to generate other possibilities for making more money.